Sam's Revenge
by KHighness
Summary: Worst thing you can do is mess with a Momma Bear's cubs. Somebody should've told that to Olivia Jerome when she tried to kill Sam Morgan and her unborn baby...and when old enemies become new prey, there's no place to hide from Sam's revenge!
1. Part I

**They always want to come for Sam Morgan. They always want to test her strength. Fine...let's see how they like it when the tables turn and my girl takes her power back!**

 **Sam's Revenge**

The midnight transfer came as something of a surprise, but what the heck, waking up in Maine with hours and hours between her and Port Charles will be a welcome change. She has connections in Maine, connections that will watch her back until the arrangements for the boat to get her out of the country can be finalized. In Port Charles she's had to sleep with one eye open, everybody wants a piece of her and she found out that the Morgan-Corinthos Organization's arm was pretty long. Olivia Jerome took her seat in the back of the transport van and jiggled the chains binding her hands and feet with disgust. These neanderthals thought they could keep her locked up and chained for long, they have no idea who she is and how far her reach runs, but in a few days when she's long gone and they're left scratching their heads in wonder, they'll find out. She laughs quietly to herself, watching as the jail disappears from view and the van heads out of town. Goodbye Port fools - I'll be seeing you all again soon enough.

Twenty minutes later the van came to an unexpected stop and Olivia's head went up in alert. Why would they be stopping ages before they got to their intended destination? Must be a fuel stop, she thought…weird that they wouldn't have filled up before leaving the yard, but whatever…a few minutes off schedule she could live with. Suddenly there was the strangest scraping sound running along the side of the van, sounded like it started from the front and was slowly, slowly screeching it's way towards the back. It sounded almost like something metal was scraping along the outside of the van. A minute later, the sound of the back doors being unlocked were puzzling - why would the guards take the chance of opening the van between stops?

The doors creaked open slowly and Olivia got her answer. It was by far not one she was expecting and she couldn't mask her shock if she tried. The petite brunette standing in the open door, clad from neck to toe in black leather, her raven lochs drawn back in a ponytail, was the last person Olivia expected to see again so soon. She looked from the cold brown eyes watching her to the object being swung from one black gloved hand to the other and recognized the sound she heard earlier as the metal bar being scraped along the side of the van. She swallowed hard. This could not be good. "Sam! Can't say I was expecting to see you." Olivia could't figure out whether she was looking at a cold smile or a derisive sneer, but she admitted that either one had her a little concerned. "How nice of you to see me off."

She watched as her niece continued to eye her with cold hatred, silently swinging the threatening object as she set about unnerving Olivia. Why the hell wasn't she speaking? "What is this, why are we stopped here?" Still no answer, just the glare getting icier and colder and more sinister. "Guards! Guards!"

Sam did laugh then. "Easy, Aunty. Your guards can hear you fine, they're not deaf." The smile on her face was gone almost as soon as it had appeared and she took a step back, away from the van door. "Get out!"

"I'll do no such thing! Guards! What the hell is this?"

She watched in horror as her niece used one hand to reach behind her, bringing it back around to brandish a glock pointed in her direction. "You can either get out on your own, or scream in pain while I drag you out with two bullets in each kneecap, your choice." She cocked the gun for emphasis and aimed straight at the right knee, "I said move!"

Olivia had to admit that the panic rising along her spine was not manufactured. She had never felt any kind of threat from the tiny little thing, had not thought much about her since the last time she saw her, still as a stone at the bottom of the bridge, but the icy woman standing in front of her now meant business. That was murder she could see in her eyes. Hobbling as fast as the chains and her growing aches would allow, Olivia scooted to the edge of the bench and exited the van. "Where the hell am I? Why am I in the woods? What the hell is this?"

"Judgement and execution, bitch!" Olivia swung around to face the sudden presence of the blond woman who came out from behind the open van door to stand opposite Sam who still had the gun trained at her head. She hadn't seen that there were two of them but she couldn't miss it now, not when Carly Corinthos, also clad in all black, made her presence known. "Remember me? Remember my baby?" she sneered.

Olivia had the good sense to be scared then. She had managed to find herself at the receiving end of two mother's revenge? "Okay, okay, I don't know what you think you're doing but you don't want to do this. This is against the law, you can't do this."

"Move!" Sam shifted to the side and herded the woman in the direction of the bridge, and that's when Olivia recognized her surroundings. Panic catapulted and bile rose to the back of her throat. She wasn't going to make it to Maine.

When she didn't move fast enough Sam poked her side with the gun, shoving her in the ordered direction before following suit, Carly coming up behind them. Soon Sam halted her on the same spot of the bridge where Olivia had tossed her like yesterday's news only four weeks earlier. "Go ahead, look down…see how far of a fall you're about to take!"

"Sam, please! We're family - you can't do this to family"

Carly scoffed at the woman. "HAH! That's rich, coming from you! Where's your brother right now, Olivia? Where's your _family_?"

Sam lowered the gun as she looked at the woman. "No, no, Carly…she's absolutely right - family is extremely important!" She neared Olivia, handing the length of iron to Carly so as to free one hand so she could reach to her back pocket for her phone. "Here, Aunty, take a look at your niece." Sam held up the adorable photo of little Scout in her Daddy's hands, gurgling up at his face and said, "look at my precious little angel that you tried to murder!"

Olivia looked at the woman, fear growing by bounds as the memory surfaced. "Sam…" she began.

"I SAID LOOK AT HER!" With the phone fisted in her hand Sam swung at the woman's face, connecting solidly to the side of her jaw in metal versus bone. Olivia cried out in pain as she fell to one knee, her balance failing under the power of Sam's punch to the face. As she knelt there Sam held the phone out to her again, "I want you to take a good look at my precious baby who you threw from this bridge, my innocent baby who you tried to kill, out of pure spite!"

"Sam, you know I didn't want to hurt the baby. You hit me, I lost my temper, I didn't mean to push you, it was an accident!"

It was Carly's turn to lose patience with the woman, landing a mighty blow to the same side of her face that Sam just left stinging. "That's for **_my_** baby you murdering bitch!" Olivia went all the way to the ground that time, wailing in pain. Sam used her phone to capture a short video of the whimpering sop in front of them and sent it to her father's phone. She knew he wasn't dead - the simpering coward was laying low somewhere while he left other people to clean up his mess, as usual. She captioned the video ' _this is what you were afraid of all these months? THIS is why you held a knife to my mother's throat and almost got my baby killed? You better stay playing dead you yellow son-of-a-bitch! Come back near my mom or anyone and I'll finish you myself!'_

She got through typing and turned back to the heap of garbage on the ground, pointing her gun at her head again, "Get up, and if I have to ask twice my gun will do the asking."

Olivia didn't doubt her, not for one split second would she ever doubt Sam Morgan again. She ambled to her feet, using the railing as a crutch to help her get all the way up, only for Sam to use the gun to wave over the side of the bridge, "jump!"

Sheer terror was coursing through her. " ** _Wh-what_**?" She looked down to the bottom and then quickly back at the gun aimed between her eyes. "Sam, please, I'm begging you don't do this! Please, you're my niece, please, please don't do this!"

Sam kept the gun trained between her eyes as she stepped closer, practically at a crawl. "Would it have made a difference to you if I had begged for my life, for my baby girl's life? Would you have cared if I'd begged you not to take me away from my son, from the love of my life?" She had the nozzle of the gun crushing between Olivia's brows at this point, she was so close. "Would you…have chosen…not to push…me?"

Olivia's knees were weak, Maine was moving so, so far away. "Yes, yes, yes, Sam, I forgot - in the heat of the moment I forgot we were family, I didn't mean it! Sam, please, I didn't meaannn iiiit…" she was not above the tears that streamed down her face nor the sobs that rocked her body. She had gone through so much, been so close to her goal, she can't die now, not when she was so very close. This can't be it for her.

"LIAR!" Carly was furious. My son did nothing to you! Morgan didn't deserve to die, he didn't deserve to get blown to bits because of you and your miserable family squabble! You killed my baby and I'm gonna kill _you_!"

Jason's voice rang out behind them. "Sam?"

Without moving the gun or taking her eyes off her target, Sam replied, "don't try to stop me, Jason. She deserves this. She tried to kill our daughter. She almost took our baby girl."

Her husband came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, bending his head to nozzle her neck as he kissed it lovingly and said, "I'm just here for cleanup, baby." Adding an open mouth kiss to the same spot on her neck, he lifted his head to look Olivia in the eye and finished, "do your thing," right before he slapped his wife's firm ass and backed up to stand against the railing.

Olivia was flabbergasted, "what kind of people are you?" she asked in amplified horror.

The last thing she heard was Carly Corinthos' reply as she felt the butt of Sam's gun mixed with the smash of Carly's steel pipe as both women swung at her head, the force sending her tumbling over the side.

"The wrong kind to fuck with lady!"

Fuck - she wasn't going to make it to Maine…


	2. Part II

His eyes were heavy and he felt groggy. He tried to move, to get up and shake it off but his limbs felt weak, unexplainably weak, and no matter how he wracked his groggy mind he couldn't remember clearly what had happened to him. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and reached for his aching head, then tried to move again only to fall back to the cold concrete in surrender.

After a few alarming minutes he tried yet again, this time getting his eyes open and able to look around him. They fell on grey, stark walls and as he moved his head he realized the same starkness went around the room. Wait, there was a form over in the corner - he looked back to see the form clad in black straddling a chair, her arms lounging folded over the back of it as she studied him. "Sam?" She moved her head to the side, her ponytail swinging to rest along her shoulder as she continued to study him. "What's happening?"

"Aww, Franco! You're awake!" She remained seated as she righted her head and moved her hands in a clasp, "you look kinda sleepy still."

He struggled to raise himself up onto an elbow, only to lay back down when his head started spinning. "What happened to me?"

"You mean you can't guess?" There was another presence in the room, the bearer of a cold masculine voice that sent a distinct chill down his spine. He opened his eyes again to see the tall blonde man walk into view, the scowl on his face reminiscent of another man who wore anger like a shield and carried it like a weapon. "Go ahead - take a stab at it."

"Michael? What is this? Where am I?"

Sam Morgan rose from her chair and approached the man slowly, her hands folded at the elbows and crisscrossed in front of her. "It doesn't look familiar to you? You locked my husband in a room very much like this one once - remember my honeymoon that you just _had_ to be a part of?" She stopped in front of him. "How's the old noggin there, Franco? A bit groggy? Disoriented? Feeling lost?"

He rubbed his forehead in confusion, "All of the above, actually. Please, tell me what's going on?"

Michael Corinthos was happy to fill him in. "Sucks, doesn't it? Right now you're feeling confused, out of place, afraid, perhaps?"

Sam drawled, "poor, poor Franco!" She walked past Michael as they crossed each other by his side, both looking at the man laying there totally at odds. She stopped and knelt down so she was near his laid out body, "Does it kinda feel like you were violated? Like somebody invaded the privacy of your bathroom, invaded your personal space as you stood naked and powerless in your shower, took your naked body and spread it out on a bed for their own sick, twisted ogling pleasure?" She turned her head very slowly to the side as she stared him in the eye, "how does your body feel? Does it feel like you may have been… _breached_?" She stressed the last word, moving her head to pointedly look to his lower regions.

Michael stopped next to her and added, "Do you? How do you feel in that special place, Franco? Does it feel like you may have been _invaded_ recently? Like maybe you've lost your _innocence_?"

The sudden and immeasurable panic was more than Franco could bear. No! No, they wouldn't, couldn't! No! But even as his fogged mind screamed against the very thought, he realized that his body did indeed feel achy and pained. Oh, God, what did they do to him.

Sam had the answer to his unasked question. "We wouldn't dream of leaving you in suspense a moment longer, so look what I have…just for you?" She held up her hand to reveal the television remote in her grasp. "Let's watch the tape, shall we?"

As Sam pressed the buttons on the remote and the overhead television lighted up with a vision of Franco in his home, it was as though it also turned on the memories in his head. They played out in agonizing detail as the tape confirmed what he recalled. He had poured himself a drink and was moving through the hallway to the bathroom, sipping as he walked towards the shower. It was his second drink of the night as he'd had one as soon as he came through the door some twenty minutes before, and as he watched himself lay the glass down by the sink, he recalled feeling tired so he'd stepped into the shower to allow the cool water to help waken him. But it hadn't worked, he'd kept getting sleepier and sleepier, and as he watched the recording now, Franco had the most sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Oh, pay close attention, Franco - you don't want to miss this part."

Sam's deriding and mocking tone almost confirmed what he feared was coming next and as he watched himself in the shower, his worst fears were realized when a presence stepped into the line of the camera and appeared through the bathroom door. "No, oh God, no!" The size of the man coming in behind him was twice his own, his stout muscular frame accented by huge tattooed arms and neck, and as he watched him remove his shirt and neared him behind the shower curtain, Franco could barely restrain the bile from spilling over. "You didn't do this! Oh, God, tell me this is a sick joke!"

Sam paused the tape as Michael turned on the terrified man on the floor, half sitting, half laying as he remained unable to fully utilize his motor functions to get all the way up.

"A joke?" Michael was so far from amused he was near murderous. "Was it a joke when you terrorized my uncle and his wife for months? Was it a joke when you followed them to a place that meant the world to them and watched them in the privacy of their cottage for your own disgusting, warped amusement?" Michael grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and using both hands he yanked him up to his full height and shoved him up against the wall as he bared his teeth in anger, "You think I was laughing when Carter backed me up into a cell and beat and _raped_ me because you put the idea into his head and painted a target on my back to destroy my uncle?" He banged Franco into the wall mercilessly and yelled, "YOU THINK ALL THAT WAS A JOKE, YOU WORTHLESS SON OF A BITCH?"

Sam came up to them and pointed the remote at Franco then back to the television set, "I got your joke right here you piece a shit!" Then she pressed play and watched as he drooped from Michael's release to brace his back against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor as his eyes glued to the screen showing his naked body being taken from the shower and moved to his bedroom. His assailant laid him out along the length of the bed and unwrapped the curtain, just before he removed his pants and lowered himself onto Franco. Right then the feed died and the television screen shivered into rice grains. Franco could not stop the bile this time as his chest heaved and the fluids left his body to pour out of him in convulsions. He thought he felt pain where he was sitting on his rear, causing him an exponential panic that emptied the rest of his stomach at his own feet.

Sam was standing over him when he finally had nothing left inside to purge, her lips turned up in disgust at more than just the chunky nastiness at his feet. "What you think, Franco… _did he or didn't he_? Is that question going to eat at you every waking minute of every miserable day of your despicable life? Do you feel like you were accosted in a place where you couldn't be more vulnerable, or thought you couldn't be more safe?" She walked slowly to his side then back around to the other, "Will you have to face the uphill battle of hating yourself _everyday,_ because you think you should have done more to stop him, should've been able to fight him off? Will you feel like you're spinning out of control, unable to fit into your own life or even your own damn skin, because somebody took that safety and that assuredness away from you, _just because he could_?" She kicked him with a heeled boot out of sheer anger and hatred, "Will your loved ones tear themselves inside out because they feel helpless and powerless to protect you and can't do a damn thing to stop the spiraling that has become your life?"

Michael sneered at the filth, "Do you feel dirty, like less of a man and less of a person because of what an animaI thought it was his right to do to you?"

The man was a blubbering mess of dry heaving on the floor. It was as though the more he thought about it the more he wanted to vomit - too bad for him his body was fresh out of anything left to toss back up.

"Everytime you wonder _did he_ , you think of Michael and the agony and the hell he had to live through because of you. Think of me and the pain, the doubts that you inflicted on my life and my marriage. Think of my baby, who missed out on mine and his father's love for months of his precious life because you're a sick, deranged pig. You think about my husband and the torture you put him through, forcing him to watch you **_assault_** me, to later blame himself for being unable to protect or defend me…and then I hope you stick a gun to the back of your throat and put a bullet through your brain when you remember how payback is such a motherfucking bitch!"

He was writhing on the floor with his head in his hands covering his face as he wailed his head from side to side. "I was sick! I didn't mean to do any of those things to you. How could you do this to me? How could you?"

"Just like this, you rotten piece a shit!" Michael spit at his head and turned away in distaste, gesturing for his aunt to lead the way out of the room.

Sam laid the remote down on the chair as she took one final look in his direction. "Here, I'll leave you the tape as a souvenir of your time together. Rot in hell you fuck!" As she walked out of the room with Michael in tow, she kept chanting in a singsong nursery rhyme tone, " _Did he, didn't he? Did he, didn't he? Did he…?"_ Then her laugh echoed into the night as they left the sniveling heap of waste behind them for good.


	3. Part III

**Part III**

Sam paced the floor with the length of the dagger twisting between her fingers, studying the tip as her slow movements took her from one end of the room to the other.

"Sam, what are you doing with that?" Alexis' voice trembled with emotion as she watched her daughter keenly, unsure of what she was thinking or what she would do. She recognized the dagger in her hand - last time she saw it the police had confiscated it as evidence. She wasn't surprised that her resourceful daughter had it but she was concerned about what she planned on doing with it.

Pausing to look back at her mother and the man who spawned her, Sam lifted her head and rested back on her heels as she asked, "What am I going to do? What are you doing here, Mom?" She swept her hand slowly around the span of the dismal room, "What exactly are you doing in Julian's motel room?" Her mom was the last person she expected when she tracked the coward to his hideout.

"I forced her to come here, don't blame your mother, Sam."

"Don't speak my name!" Her venomous spit in his direction chilled Alexis to the bone and she looked from Julian anxiously to where her daughter glared coldly at his face. "Don't you ever say my name again!

"Sam, please - he's your father!"

That incited her. "He is _not_ my father! He's the man who impregnated you when you were a kid and never looked back! He's the man who put a knife to your throat and would have slit you from ear to ear if Sonny hadn't stopped him! He's the filth who protected Olivia Jerome and allowed her to almost kill me and my child, while he cowered like a little bitch behind his secrets! Don't you ever call him my father again!"

Sam's anger was pulsating as it seemingly bounced from her in waves. She saw the look that darted between them and asked again, "You didn't answer my question, why are you here, in this pig's motel room!"

"She's my prisoner - I forced her to come here." Julian hurried to offer some explanation that wouldn't turn his daughter's ire upon her mother as well. She was in rare form, frightening almost, her wary anger barely controlled underneath the surface.

Sam knew better. She saw the way his eyes shifted when he lied, the way he hurried to beat her mother's words with his own. She also didn't miss the quick glance her mother threw to the unmade bed and back at him, and her stomach churned.

"You've gotta be shittin' me!" She neared Alexis and stared her down. " _You slept with him_?" The slight defiant lift of her chin and thinning of her lips was all the answer Sam needed. Backing away from them, she stared at her with disdain. "You actually let him touch you again? How far are going to fall before you wake up, Mom?"

"Sam, don't talk to your mother that way!"

She rushed him suddenly and flashed the knife in his face. "I told you never to speak my name again!"

"Sam, please - don't hurt him!"

Sam stormed back to where Alexis stood looking confused and frightened. "I don't believe you, Mom! I don't believe you would let him near you after everything he's done to you, to our family! What's the matter with you?" She whipped on Julian as he tried to address her again, "You stay the hell out of this - I'm talking to my mother!"

Sam turned back to Alexis and continued, shoving the knife in front of her, "Do you remember this? This is the knife that son of a bitch held to your throat and threatened to kill you with!"

"He didn't mean any of that, Sam - it was complicated…"

Sam cut her off as she continued, up in her mother's face as she emphasized her next words, " _This_ knife, Mom - not just _any_ knife…the lousy coward used _this_ knife that was used to cut your mother's throat! The knife that was used to inject the worst pain that was inflicted on your young life, the knife that robbed you of your mother, that took her from you… _that_ was the knife that your beloved husband put to your throat and threatened to drain your own life with."

Sam watched her mother turn white as she shivered in place and she continued, "You know what's not complicated, Mom? It's that if it was left up to Julian, I would _not_ be standing here right now because I'd be **_dead_**!"

She saw the color drain even more from Alexis' face and she spat, " _Scout_ would be dead, Mom! My innocent daughter, your sweet little granddaughter would never have taken her first precious breath…because the man you can't keep your hands off of was too much of a dipshit to tell anybody the truth! He allowed someone he _knew_ was dangerous to infiltrate our family and use you, me, and everybody else as pawns to get what she wanted. Explain the complication in that, Mom?"

"Your mother didn't…"

"Explain to me how it's complicated that you've been allowing him to use you for months and months, to take almost everything from you and still you're here now, giving him more? The law practice that was your life's work you allowed him to take from you and you make no effort to take it back! The respect of your peers and your two young daughters who saw you as a strong and formidable woman, you allowed him to taint and lessen…your young, impressionable daughters who you raised to be strong, independent individuals with minds and a will of their own, you allow them to watch a man break you, take your self worth and your self esteem and still you give him more? Molly's and Kristina's opinion of you don't matter to you anymore? What you taught them about respecting themselves and the way they allow people to treat them is now irrelevant? Because of **_him_**?" Sam pointed at Julian as the disgust dripped from her words.

Alexis fell to the bed, shaking, the tears threatening to spill as she fought to control the emotions blazing through her. She was so confused, so torn between hating and loving the man of her dreams, so eager to be able to explain what she was feeling to her unforgiving daughter but not being able to make any of it make sense. She shook her head as the whisper escaped her lips, "He's your father…he's your father."

"He is the bastard who almost killed my daughter, and the only reason I didn't let my husband put a bullet in his brain, or hunt him down and do it myself, is because he saved my son's life! As much as he did it and used him as a bargaining chip to keep Sonny from killing him, Danny would've died if he hadn't given him the transplant…but letting him live is the last thing I will ever do for Julian Jerome!"

She turned away from Alexis to look at the man standing by the bed, wishing he'd make a move so she could gut him.

"You come anywhere near anyone in my family again and it'll be the last thing you do!"

Julian tried to step to her, "You have to let me explain…my hands were tied, she would've killed you all - everybody I loved!"

"So you left us all at her mercy? You allowed my mother to open her home and herself to a dangerous woman because _your hands were tied_? You're a lousy coward who thinks of nobody but yourself! You use and use until there's nothing left and if you think I'm going to sit and watch you keep doing it to my mother you have another thing coming!"

"Sam, he didn't hurt me. Nothing happened that I didn't want to happen."

"Open your eyes, Mom!" The frustration was making her dizzy. "Geez, what the hell happened to you? He damaged your spirit so badly that he drove you to drink, why can't you see that?"

"I'm responsible for my own actions, Sam. I picked up a bottle, that's on me. Your father helped me to stop drinking, you have to give him that."

" ** _He's the reason you started to drink in the first place_**! He cut you so low that you tried to drown yourself in alcohol just to ease the pain! He made you feel ashamed and unloved to the point where you turned away from everything you loved and everyone who loved you and almost drank yourself to death…and you think he deserves praise for pointing it out to you? Who the hell are you and what have you done with my mother?"

Alexis buried her face in her hands and sobbed openly. She had lived for her girls and devoted herself to who they would become, to guiding them towards being strong, independent women in their own right. Sam had succeeded on her own merit, but she still had two young girls to answer to but she had been so overwhelmed lately that nothing was making sense anymore. One minute she'd thought she hated the man, but then his letter explained so many things that she hadn't understood and couldn't grasp while they were happening. He had done all those awful things in the name of saving them all from a mad woman, hadn't he? "B-but the letter…"

"Sam, please! Stop badgering your mother, can't you see how much you're hurting her?"

"I told you to stay out of it!" The words were accented by the vase that she threw at his head in anger - it narrowly missed him and crashed into the wall, jolting Alexis off the bed. "You're the reason my mother is behaving like a battered woman and if you keep talking I swear I'll stick you like the pig you are and watch you bleed!"

"Stop it! Stop it, both of you!"

"I will not, Mom…not until you start acting like you have some sense left. His stupid letter was a load of hogwash that didn't explain **_anything_** \- he's still a selfish user who manipulated you to throw your life away for him and he's still manipulating you now! **_STOP LETTING HIM_**!"

The knock on the door startled them all. "Police! Open up!"

Sam lifted her foot to the chair and stuck the dagger inside her boot, straightening up to her mother as she said, "Don't say anything…you are not here willingly, do you hear me?"

The next day Alexis was still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. She realized that something about the police officers who arrested Julian and led him out in cuffs didn't sit right with her, and after some deliberation she finally put her finger on it. For one thing they weren't clean cut like the cops she was used to, and the uniforms didn't fit well on two of them at all. Not only were they baggy but the un-ironed shirts had folding lines that suggested they were worn straight from the packaging. The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became so finally she made up her mind to check it out, deciding to stop by the PCPD to pay Julian a visit.

After the police station she went to see Sam whom she found at home with Scout.

"Sam, what did you do?"

Sam closed the door behind her mother and followed her into the living room, "Hello to you too, Mom, and please keep your voice down, your granddaughter is sleeping right over there."

Alexis looked over to where she pointed at the bassinet but didn't move to the baby, instead she turned back to Sam, fidgeting. "What have you done to your father?"

Sam walked around her to peer into the bassinet checking for herself that her angel was still sleeping before taking a seat on the couch, answering cooly, "I told you to stop calling him that! That coward is nothing to me!"

Alexis took a seat facing her daughter. "It doesn't matter what you think of him, he's still your father - you can't change that."

Sam picked up the parenting magazine she'd been reading before her mother showed up, flipping calmly through the pages, "Like hell I can't! You can stay attached to the selfish bastard all you want…I have no father!"

Alexis was losing her patience with her stubborn daughter. She reached out and snatched the magazine from her, "Look at me Sam!" When she sighed and looked over she asked again, "What happened to Julian? I went to the police station and he wasn't there. They have no record of him being arrested yesterday - what did you do?"

"Something you should've done instead of coddling him, Mom - got him away from our family once and for all!"

Alexis suddenly felt dizzy as the air escaped her lungs in pants, "Oh, my God…please tell me you didn't kill your father! Sam, what did you do?"

"I didn't kill anyone…but Julian Jerome is a million miles away from here and he will not be coming back. You can forgive him and justify those horrible things all you want so you can live with letting that pig touch you, but he will never be allowed anywhere near my children, ever again!"

"Olivia is the one you should blame, she's the one who pushed you!"

"They're both to blame, Mom! I would never have gotten in that car with her if it wasn't for Julian! He allowed that woman to worm her way in as your sponsor - you introduced her to me as your friend because he allowed you to welcome her into your home, into your sobriety, knowing damn well that she wanted all of us dead and was working an angle, and you sit here defending him?"

"Sam, you're married to a man who's done worse! He even threatened your life before, how can you judge Julian so harshly when Jason is no better than him?"

Sam looked at her mother with her mouth open for a minute before she could reply, "You've got to be joking right now?" When her mother's look said no, she wasn't, Sam continued angrily, "Jason is **_nothing_** like Julian!"

She was so angry she couldn't sit still anymore, jumping up from the couch to walk the length of it hotly, "Jason would never put a knife to my throat - how can you even put them in the same category?"

She laid her hands on the back of the couch and lent down to look her mother in the eye, "What happened with Jason and me was completely different and you know it - I was out of control with anger and grief and he said those words to prevent me from doing something reckless that could hurt innocent children - he's **_never_** laid a hand on me! Jason is a million times a better man than Julian will ever be…he would not sit idly by and let some lunatic threaten his family and do nothing about it! Don't ever put my husband and that selfish weasel in the same category ever again!"

The wailing from the bassinet got Sam's attention, prodding her to go over and lift her daughter into her arms, "It's okay baby girl - Momma didn't mean to wake you with her yelling - bad Momma - it's okay, shhhh…" Rocking her daughter softly, Sam started pacing with her in her arms, calmly soothing her back to sleep.

Alexis looked at the picture they presented and she thought about what Sam had said about them both being dead and she couldn't stop the sudden dread and the pang of sadness that hit her heart. They really could both be under right now, but it wasn't Julian who did those things, it was his sister. She needed to make her stubborn daughter see that and find out what she'd done to her father. She knew she shouldn't be with him anymore but she couldn't stand the thought of something happening to him. She still loved him, despite what he didn't have the courage to do for them in the past.

"Sam, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you and Scout got hurt, I'm sorry you're so angry about all this, but you need to be reasonable. I know you can be forgiving, so why can't you forgive this?"

For a minute she wasn't sure Sam heard her, she kept walking the room and cooing her baby girl back to sleep, not paying attention to Alexis. Then she said the words that shamed Alexis again.

"Do you even realize that you've been here for twenty minutes and you haven't even looked at Scout?" Sam didn't look away from her daughter as she addressed her mother softly. "Since the minute you came through that door, all you've been focused on is Julian Jerome - you didn't even walk over to the bassinet to peek in on her, you haven't tried to hold her, you didn't even ask how she was. This precious little angel, your flesh and blood granddaughter who's here because her father will move heaven and earth to protect his family, will go to any lengths to save his little girl. Jason Morgan actually breathed life into her little chest after he delivered her at the bottom of the bridge I got tossed from because Julian couldn't bother to tell us who Liv really was, and you think he's no better than Julian."

Sam walked back over to the bassinet and laid her sleeping daughter down, tucking the blanket safely around her, then kissing her finger and touching it to her tiny little nose. "Go home, Mom. If I were you, I'd look after myself and pay attention to staying sober for yourself and your two young daughters." She turned to face her mother, "Krissy and Molly are both adults now, but they still need you. Do yourself a favor and forget about Julian Jerome and what may or may not be happening to him and concentrate on cleaning up the mess he's made of your life. Go after your license, get back to work so you can have a purpose again. Get back your fight so you can stand up for yourself and stop getting fed bullshit and call it love. Go home, Mom. I will never tell you where he is, not ever!"


	4. Part IV

**Part IV**

She sat on the chair in the corner away from everyone else in the room and wondered for the hundredth time in days how she'd ended up in the predicament she was in. What started off as a routine day at work had quickly turned into a psychiatric hold that had robbed her of three days of her life. Today was the third day of the hold and just when she thought the nightmare was about to come to an end, things had taken a turn for the worse and the hold was turning into an egregious stay.

Pulling her sweater closer to her trembling body as she looked around her in the same horror she's felt for three days, she thought back to the day it all started. She had arrived for her shift at the hospital to find a note from the Chief Of Staff, directing her to report for the day to fill in at the clinic. She remembered the words so clearly…" _The shortage of staff has impacted our sister facility greatly and they are in dire need of skilled professionals to assist for a few days. Your help today will be appreciated and very generously compensated."_

Being a single mother of three and the sole bread winner for her family, she welcomed all opportunities to earn extra money and hadn't thought anything of the request, especially since she knew firsthand that qualified staff had been in short supply at the facility for months. There was a letter attached to the note, marked as a letter of introduction.

Thinking back now she wished she'd had the foresight to open the sealed envelop prior to her arrival at the clinic where it was opened by the head nurse and found to be a typed letter indicating her wish to commit herself for seventy-two hours. After her initial shock, she had tried desperately to point out an obvious error, but upon comparison with her driver's license the signature on the letter was in identical penmanship.

She had never been more terrified than when she realized that they seriously believed the letter that proclaimed her to be a danger to herself and her children, that she was plagued by multiple personalties that posed a threat to their wellbeing. The mysterious letter had gone on to describe in detail how very frantic she was to get assistance and that whatever happened when she got there she was not to be allowed to leave before the personalities had been properly evaluated.

Remembering how literally the letter had been received and how her fervent refusal to be committed had been ignored, she wondered again who had done this horrible thing to her. She tried to think about who could possibly hate her enough to separate her from her life and leave her at the mercy of truly insane people and endless bouts of unneeded therapy that after three days had her starting to believe that she really was crazy.

Memories of endless nights filled with troubled screams and incessant gibberish, followed by dreary days being surrounded by people clearly not in control of their faculty, given the constant head banging and paper eating that filled the unbearable hours of torture. How did this happen to her?

"You have a visitor."

She looked up at the Orderly in full white who addressed her as he came to stop directly in front of the window by her side and her heart leapt in her chest. Somebody was looking for her - Oh, thank God! Finally, Franco realized what had happened to her and had come looking for her - she knew he'd find her!

"I thought you said I couldn't have contact with anyone outside for seventy-two hours?"

The man frowned as he rolled his eyes to the side. "This visitor is different. Move it, we don't have all day!"

He stepped towards her as though to reach for her arm unless she moved by herself so she rose voluntarily and followed him through the sliding doors to an outside garden. She followed him across the manicured lawn to a gazebo on the edge of the property, overlooking a tiny pond. Her anxiety mixed with curiosity was building the closer she got, until she came face to face with her nemesis.

Sam was slouched on the bench of the gazebo, gazing out over the pond at the family of ducks that swam in a direct line one behind the other. The woman's arrival did not break her concentrated gaze on the little ducklings that dipped their heads and flapped their wings once they formed a circle in the calm water.

"Sam?" Oh, thank God…someone whom she knew! Finally someone who could vouch for her sanity and her right to freedom. She would have rather it be her new love or better, the man she had loved for so long, but at this point she'll even take the heathen of Port Charles.

"Sam, thank goodness you're here - you have to help get me out of here. There's been a terrible mistake!"

Sam kept her eyes on the tiny ducklings, admiring the beauty of the setting sun that reflected off the water and bathed them in the softest evening glow, as she addressed the unfortunate woman distastefully. "You thought all was forgiven and you were home free, didn't you princess?" She was cool as a cucumber on the outside and a simmering cavern of heat on the inside as she looked over to study the hated woman's quiet panic.

" _Do_ what you want, _take_ what you want and to hell with the rest of us…who cares, so long as you get what you want…isn't that how it works?"

"Sam, what're you talking about?" She approached Sam in a rush and grabbed for her arm, pleading, "Nobody knows I'm here and these people refuse to let me leave! Please - I don't know what is happening to me - you have to help me!"

Moving away from her Sam walked to the edge of the small gazebo and clasped her hands behind her back and waited, taking in the serenity of the manicured grounds surrounding them.

Sighing resignedly, Elizabeth Webber rolled her eyes and exclaimed, "Look, I have been stuck in here for three damn days and if you know something you need to just come out and say it already! Some of us have a life and important people who care about us…"

Sam chuckled coldly. "It comes so naturally to you…I'm beneath you, aren't I, Queenie? Always been lower than the dirt on your feet…certainly not good enough to breathe the same air as Saint Elizabeth, uncrowned queen of Port Charles and self-proclaimed love of Jason Morgan's life!" Turning to face her she looked at the woman who remained clueless in face of her comeuppance.

Elizabeth stepped closer, her hands expressing her anxiety. "Sam, please…you're the first familiar face I've seen in three days. I came here voluntarily and am being held against my will - you have to help me get out of here! These people think I'm crazy!"

Sam couldn't stop the sudden, ridiculing laughter that left her body as she threw her head back in cold mirth. " _I have to help you_? Do I now?"

Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief. For days now nothing had made sense to her. She looked at Sam and started to wonder if she was even really there. Maybe she was imagining her - maybe she was imagining the whole, sordid, tormenting ordeal! That was it - she was dreaming! She was stuck in the middle of an unimaginable nightmare and all she had to do was wake up! Pinching herself as hard as she could, she followed that up with using her fingers to pry at her eyelids, thinking she must be asleep and that would help wake her up.

Sam looked at the woman and any amusement she'd had in the moment left as she thought the psycho really was batty as fuck.

"Hey!" she snapped at the loon, "You're wide awake and this is the waking, living, nightmare that it's supposed to be!"

"What are you talking about? You know why they won't let me leave?"

Sam moved to the bench by the hedge and sat with one leg tossed loosely over the other as she studied the pitiful creature.

"You're here because I put you here! And you'll leave only when and _if_ I want you to!"

"What? You can't do that!"

"Only…I have, haven't I?" She used her hands to sweep around them, "And by the way, you've been here for a week, not three days, and if I want you to stay for the rest of your unnatural life that's exactly what will happen!"

Her mouth falling open, Elizabeth plopped down to the nearby bench as she gaped at Sam. "But why? Why would you do this? And what the hell do you mean I've been here a week? That's impossible!"

"See if any of this sounds familiar…you arrived at work and found a message addressed to you from the Chief of Staff requesting that you volunteer here for the day. Being the selfless, goody-goody who needs to stay on Jason's mother's good side in hopes that she'll forget you kept her son being alive from her for months, and keep her thinking what an angel of mercy you are, you said, _sure…of course I'll do it!_ Only, when you got here, the letter of introduction had somehow morphed into a voluntary seventy-two hour hold that read, ' _I fear for the safety of my children as I have been having dreams about hurting them. I need help and I voluntarily submit myself to the care of this facility - please, help me!_ _No matter what I say, please do not allow me to leave_.' Does any of that sound familiar?"

"Oh, my God - you did this! You sick bitch - why are you doing this?"

Sam closed in on her menacingly. "Do you really believe I will let you parade around in my family with the sick son-of-a-bitch who tried on several occasions to tear it apart, and welcome you both with open arms?" Her face was so close to the nurse's that she could see every pore on her face. "Do you think I would ever give you another chance to try and tear my kids' lives apart with your petty, silly little games and sick need for attention from my husband and every other man around you?"

Elizabeth's mouth fell open in shock. "I have not come anywhere near Jason in months - I have moved on and am building a life of my own that has nothing to do with him!"

" _Nothing to do with him_? Bitch, of all the sane, sensible, responsible men you could have chosen to have around your children, you chose the psycho who's still obsessed with my husband to be the one you bring into his son's life. You're a sick, needy little bitch who likes to play games and you think that throwing the freak in Jason's face every chance you get…allowing him to bond with Jason's son will what…send my husband into a jealous rage and make him declare his undying love for you?" Sam jabbed the woman harshly in the head several times, "Wake the fuck up, Lucy! Your fifteen minutes fucking my husband have _been_ up, just like your days of pulling our strings like puppets are nothing but a bad, distasteful memory!"

"Franco is not who he used to be - he was sick when he hurt you. He's not like that anymore and Jake adores him. Why can't you and Jason see that?"

"Franco is a sick freak who's using your pathetic ass so he can try and torture Jason with his closeness to his son! The psycho broke up with his girlfriend because she wanted a child, but turned right around and took up with you who has **_three_** \- and you're swallowing that shit with your usual desperation to do anything to get Jason's attention. Let me guess - you're just so irresistible and your pussy is so magnetic it can change any man, huh?" Sam was getting so angry she shoved her back harshly and advanced on her even more. "You're mother fucking Theresa with the face and heart of an angel that makes you the good one to save the soulless asshole from the darkside, is that it? You're the compassionate angel who's going to save the degenerate rapist freak, are you princess?"

Elizabeth reached her hand up to soothe the bruise she felt forming. "I'm not rehashing all this with you, Sam. Franco is good to me and my boys and he's not after anyone anymore. Why do you care anyway, huh? Who I sleep with is my business!"

"Except when you try to involve my family! You can let him use you all you want, my husband couldn't care less who you sleep with, but he loves his little boy and you're blindly setting him up for a fall because you're trying to get to his father. You've unleashed that thing on your innocent children, one of whom he's even kidnapped before, for crying out loud! Do you plan to stay a desperate moron all your life? Aren't you ever going to put those poor boys first? For once, just once, can't you put their needs above your libido and your desperation for Jason long enough to find it odd that the psycho isn't even interested in your other two kids? You don't wonder why _Jason's son_ is the only one of your kids he's bonded so tightly with?"

"I don't want Jason!"

" ** _YOU ALWAYS WANT JASON_**! But you can give it up once and for all because I'll drop you over a bridge before I let you hurt my family again!"

"This is nuts…and they think I'm the one who's crazy? This is why you locked me in here?"

"Your sins are plenty, Lizzy, and I locked you in here to let you know that I'm done playing with you. I'm done looking the other way and making nice to keep the peace, and I'm sure as hell done with you coming after my family. From now on, what you do you fucking pay for!"

"I don't know where you get off pointing fingers at me, Sam - you watched my baby get kidnapped, then turned around and sent thugs after me with guns…you are one to talk!"

Sam's laugh was cold and biting. "Here we go again - your one and only song and dance. Funny how I can name ten horrible, shitty things you've done to us recently but all you continually go for is ancient history. For the record, bitch - a harder gangsta chick would've had your sorry ass pistol whipped, instead of threaten you with fake guns. You want to fuck a mobster and expect to go untouched by his life, sneak off to screw him every chance you get then go back to live in your little fairytale and remain pristine and untouched by the ugliness that surrounded him everyday?"

Sam touched the scar beneath her hairline where she'd had brain surgery, "I **_paid_** my dues to earn my husband's love and loyalty, stood by him when he needed a rock, and **_that's_** why we are where we are today."

"Jason and I could've been happy if he'd chosen a different life. He didn't need to live the way he did - he could've left the mob life behind him but no, he couldn't do it for us."

"Always about you and what _you_ want. And what makes you think things would've been any different if he _had_ chosen that path, huh? We moved to the other side of the world to live a different life once and you know what it got us? It got us discovered the next day…I had to shoot a goon in our bedroom then watch as two more tied my man to a chair and shoot him in the leg to torture him for their sick enjoyment. Had to endure the maniac's filthy hands and lips all over me to make sure he didn't put a bullet in Jason's head too. Tell me what part of that experience you would have handled, princess?"

Sam reached her hand round to the scar at her lower back, "Bullet in the back in Jason's arms, because that same lunatic wanted to torture him by using me, the same lunatic who later tried to brand me with his mark for Jason to see. The serial killer that you have living with his son locked me in a cage, and that was before he terrorized me on my honeymoon and assaulted my naked body in my shower. My husband and I will _NOT_ just shake hands and play nice with you and that fucker, while you try to use his son to jerk his chains! Think I'll sit by and let you play your childish games with us ever again?"

Elizabeth noticed that the Orderly remained in close proximity to the gazebo, pretending not to listen to every word of the heated exchange. She had tried several times since she'd been there to persuade the man to help her, she'd begged several members of the staff in fact, but nobody would believe anything she said.

"Sam, please, we can put all that in the past and let bygones be bygones. Franco and I want to do that - why can't…"

"Franco and you want to paint Jason as the outsider to his son and rub Franco in his face everyday…in _my_ face everyday! Your boyfriend admitted to Jason that he knew from an early age that he was _different,_ did he have a brain tumor back then? He spent years before he even came here, doing sick, sadistic things to women and you act like a brain tumor is what made him do those despicable things, when we all know that's a load a bullshit! Tell me something Elizabeth, how would you have liked it if _your_ rapist had been pardoned with a brain tumor defense and been allowed to raise your children?"

Sam watched the astonished incredulity cross the woman's face and went for the jugular. "How would you live knowing that the man who robbed you of your sense of security and left you feeling violated and filthy, was around your innocent, impressionable children everyday, and everybody thought it was okay because he had a brain tumor that made all forgiven?"

"That's not fair…Tom Baker was an animal who _raped_ me! Franco is nothing like that!"

"Franco is exactly like that! And you _raped_ Jason for months so don't act like some innocent debutante who wouldn't hurt anyone, it doesn't fly with those of us who know the real you and know how deceitful you really are. You're a manipulative cow and if you continue to push me I will bury you so deep in this nuthouse your kids will have grandkids before you grope your way out!"

Elizabeth ran to the Orderly, "You hear her threatening me - you know I'm not insane - she did this! Please, you have to help me!"

The man looked at her before he looked to Sam and started backing away from them. "Mrs. Morgan, I'll be over by the entrance - just holler when you're done."

Sam nodded to the man as they both watched him leave, Elizabeth's face crumbling with the numbing realization that Sam had him in her pocket. Of course she did. Turning back to face the woman she started to truly appreciate the direness of her situation.

"You won't get away with leaving me in here. Franco will find me - he won't let you do this to me!"

"Hahaha! I wouldn't hold my breath Lizzy - your pet freak has his own demons to fight. He's so miserable right now I doubt you even register on his radar." She stepped to the woman again. "I told you, you stupid fucks don't get to hurt us anymore! _You_ kidnapped my husband and raped him for months and got away with it, kept him from his son, after you'd already had the gall to try and hide my baby's paternity from us before, spewing your fake forgiveness and lies. Just who the hell do you think you are?"

She wanted to choke her to death. "You are nothing to me, Elizabeth! You're less than nothing, and just so we're perfectly clear after today, settle in for another week inside your own personal hell because you're not going anywhere until I say so!"

"No! Don't, Sam - you don't need to do this!"

Sam grabbed the woman by the throat using one hand to squeeze her bony neck as she clutched at Sam's hand trying to untangle herself, her big eyes growing wildly wider as she struggled to breathe.

"You think I'm done with you? Make one more move that I interpret to be a threat against my family and I'll bury you in this place, drive you completely senseless, and toss your lifeless body in pieces in the bearings. And the minute you think I'm bluffing… ** _try me_**!"

Elizabeth's panic reigned supreme at the iciness she saw in Sam's eyes and dripping from her words. She thought back to the previous days and the unbearable horrors she'd endured, and everything in her wanted to beg for mercy.

Slowly unclasping the bitch's throat, Sam flexed her fingers and trounced past her to make her way from the gardens.

"Sam," she rasped as the fire in her throat matched that in her head as she fought against the inevitable and gave frantic chase. "Please don't leave me here. You know I don't belong here…please!"

When Sam just kept going and ignored her as she brandished her phone and nodded to the Orderly in passing, Elizabeth's spirit fell to the floor along with her face and she sobbed. Once again she had underestimated Samantha Morgan and found herself on the receiving end of her life altering wrath. She truly feared this time could be the last.


	5. Part V

_**A/N: Some revenge is so well deserved it's better dished in stages!**_

 **Part V**

Exactly one week later, Elizabeth Webber was released and on her way home. Just like that, after a second week of torture and misery spent in a horrid, unspeakable place, she was released without pomp. A nurse opened the door to her padded cell and entered with the Orderly in toe, advised her she was being released and that was that - she was escorted out the front door, driven home and deposited on her doorstep.

She still couldn't understand what the hell happened to her or how Sam had been able to so completely control a situation that left her incarcerated and mentally abused, and no-one had come looking for her. The experience had left her so scarred and so terrified that she spent the next two days locked up in her house, afraid that if she stepped foot outside she would be grabbed and taken back to the petrifying place. She slept with every single light on in the house, even the one in the basement, sleep that was unrestful and brief, as each time she closed her eyes she would dream that she was back there, resulting in her waking up screaming and dripping in cold sweat.

The second day she was home she tried again to reach Franco. He hadn't returned her calls from the day before and she couldn't understand how he hadn't seemed to be the least bit worried about where she'd been. She needed him and she was certain he would have dropped everything and run to her - she was afterall, his angel…he had said so himself…had painted her that way and everything. So where was he when she needed him? When she really needed someone to worship at her dainty, angelic feet and remind her that she was too good for the rest of them?

She dialed his number and plopped down on the couch, listening to the second ring and then hearing the sound of his voice. "Hello."

Bolting upright, she realized she hadn't expected him to pickup this time either. "Franco! Thank God…where have you been? Why haven't you answered or returned any of my calls?"

After what was a brief, unnerving silence his voice, sounding oddly cold and distant, filled her with more questions and no answers. "Elizabeth. This is not a good time - I can't talk right now."

"You can't talk? Franco, I've been in hell for two weeks now and you haven't even noticed, what has happened to you?"

She listened as the silence filled the line again, and she was starting to think he'd hung up when she heard him say, "I have to go, Elizabeth. Good luck." Then there was a definite click that time and she moved the phone from her ear and stared at it in her hand as though it had morphed into something vile. He hung up on her! No explanation, no apology, no concern…just hung up! And what the hell did he mean by _good luck_? That's it - that's all he had for her after everything? What the hell was going on in her world?

The knock at the door startled her from angry confusion and thrusted her into panicked wonder. Please, God, don't let them be back to take her. She couldn't go back there! She thought of the endless days spent drugged out like a zombie, the residents around her attacking each other and seeing things and people who weren't really there, walking up to her and sniffing and touching her hair, hours and hours of mindless therapy sessions that she didn't need, and she prayed that Sam hadn't sent them back to torture her some more.

There was a second knock followed by the sweetest call, "Elizabeth…Elizabeth, are you home?"

The nectar calm dripping from her tone sent chills through the nurse as she cringed deeper into the couch, pulling her knees up to her chest in fright, her frantic whisper sounding coarse to her ears. "Oh, God, please - not her, not her!"

"Elizabeth, open up. It's Saaamm." The jeering drawl in the announcement drove fear into the nurse's heart but she would never admit it to the bitch's face. She unfurled from her cowering position on the couch in newfound affront. Who the hell did she think she was?

Flinging the door open she faced the stone faced PI with indignation and anger. "You have some nerve showing up here like this! Do you think for one minute that you're gonna get away with what you did?"

Pushing past her without waiting for an invitation, Sam walked into the living room and owned it instantly, hearing the TV echo from upstairs and the kitchen, seeing lights on everywhere, smiling inwardly at the nurse's attempt at bravado in the face of her obvious fear.

"You know, Lizzie, if I didn't hate you so damn much I could almost respect you." Sam took a couple steps back towards her as the nurse stood by the door with it still open, wanting Sam to leave. "You sound almost convincing in your big girl ' _I'm not afraid voice' -_ good for you!"

"Get the hell out of my house, Sam, before I call the police!"

Making the _ooh, I'm so scared_ universal shiver of her arms and shoulders, Sam sat down in the armchair facing the door and looked coldly at the woman, "Sit your ass down before I make a call of my own!"

The nurse turned paler, her hand visibly shaking as she closed the front door and wrapped her sweater tight around her, moving to the couch away from Sam to sit as ordered. She wouldn't cower but she didn't doubt for a second that the hateful woman could send her back to that place with just a phonecall. Isn't that what happened before?

Sam sat in purposeful silence as she glared at the despised nurse. Her mousy appearance was what she used as her most powerful weapon to get men to fall into the role of her great protector, Sam's husband included. For the longest time, Jason was convinced that the vindictive, spiteful woman didn't have a hateful bone in her body and was the sweetest angel to grace this earth. He had paid dearly for that naiveté, the nurse had seen to it personally, and on more than one occasion.

Sam could see her trying to read the silence and not venturing to break it in an effort to appear to have the upper hand. Like Sam would ever give her that ever again. Allowing her eyes to travel the nurse slowly, Sam noted how flawless her skin looked, as if she bathed in milk like the queens of African adage. Her big eyes always looked so innocent and unassuming, partly what she used to draw her prey, the doey duo giving the false impression of helplessness. She was so skinny she looked almost unhealthy, which was probably why she was cold all the time, always wearing the most horrid, matronly sweaters that apparently added to her charm, for some. Oh, yes, the quiet little nurse had her game down packed…men like Jason and Lucky were warriors and they prided themselves on taking care of the weak and the needy, and Lizzie had those qualities locked. Many men gravitated to that soft, feminine, motherly type who screamed need and protection, something the nurse oozed effortlessly.

"What do you want, Sam? I have a life I'd like to get back to - I have children who haven't seen me in two weeks!" She glared at Sam in accusation.

"Bitch, please! The only one of your children you see regularly is Jake, because he's your only hold on Jason and that's all you know! Don't act like the other two aren't thinking of Audrey as their legal guardian by now. They probably didn't even notice you were gone!"

"That is not true - I love all my children! Jake just needs me more right now, that's all. He needs more attention to help him through everything that Helena did to him."

"Attention he should've gotten when he just came back, but you were too busy covering up your disgusting lies and deceit to think about his well being. That evil witch had your child for four damn years and the first thing you did was not get him in therapy? Not get him an avenue to deal with whatever the hell happened to him? He's been back for two years, and **_now_** is when you finally realize that he needs help? What sane, caring mother wouldn't have wanted to know **_everything_** about what happened to him right away? What he did every day, where he'd lived, who he'd spent time with, what they did together, things he learned, things he saw, **_how he felt_**? Not you - you had somebody else's husband to steal and couldn't spare any focus from that…and now that all of it blew up in your nasty face, the help of a psycho is what you choose to give him! Who the hell, besides the blind men around you, do you think you're kidding with your bullshit?"

"You've always been jealous of Jake, Sam. You've always hated the fact that Jason and I have a child together, that we share a lifetime bond."

"Correction, Lizzie - I spent a few months being jealous of all that. I spent a few months lost, and hurt, and angry, and dangerous. But then I grew up! I saw Jake for the beautiful little boy and the gift that he was. Then I saw myself for the bitter, angry, vindictive person I was turning myself into and I changed that course in a hurry. See, Liz - I was mature enough to learn that anger and bitterness will eat you alive if you let it, and that's not how I wanted to live my life, so I didn't." She leant forward in the chair towards the woman, coldness dripping from her tone as she told her, "But I'm still more dangerous than you ever want to know little girl."

Elizabeth couldn't stop herself from cowering back at the iciness in both her eyes and her words, and she pictured herself ending up in a coffin with her grieving boys left alone to fend for themselves. It made her shudder without meaning to.

"This is pointless - why are you here?"

Sam stood from the chair and walked over to the mantle and took up the picture of Jake and his brothers, looking at his striking blue eyes and blond hair that had helped convince them for so long that he was Jason's. "He could easily be Lucky's too, couldn't he, Liz?"

The nurse's chin went up as she flared at Sam. "But he isn't, so you can just deal with it! Jason and I are raising a child together and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!"

Sam chuckled as she placed the picture frame back on the mantel and stroked the little boy's face lovingly. "Oh, stop…now you and I both know that's not true."

"What are you getting at?"

"You are a true piece of work, I'll give you that." She turned to face the woman and was disgusted looking at her. "Funny how the only person who can help the little boy you're using to keep Jason in your life, is also the one man Jason hates more than any other. By the way, where is your love these days, Lizzie?" She made mock of looking around for him, "He's not too busy for you, is he?"

Light was beginning to dawn. Sam seemed hell bent on avenging wrongs against her, and no one besides Elizabeth, had wronged her more than the man who terrorized and let her think he raped and impregnated her. Elizabeth suddenly felt sick. Franco had turned away from her even though he clearly worshipped her - what could have made him do that?

"No - you didn't do something to Franco? You didn't drive away the one man who gives me what I need and treats me right? You didn't!"

Sam scrunched her nose while she shrugged her shoulders, "Welll…." She didn't need to continue as she saw the lightbulb ding bright in the bitch's head. Leaning her head a little to the side she asked, "I am curious about something about you though, and I have been for a long time. How is it that you can so easily forgive the people who **_actually_** kidnapped your children - Maureen, Franco, Luke who you thought killed Jake driving drunk - how is it that you have the most compassion for the people who actively took those precious boys from you, but you hate me to this day, for not doing anything when **_you_** let Jake get kidnapped? I mean, it doesn't matter all that much to me now, but I've always been a little curious as to your motive. Does every single thing about you always comes back to Jason or some man?"

Elizabeth was more than a little thrown by the question. "Maureen was sick, she was grieving and out of her mind. So was Franco…he had a medical reason for his behavior."

Sam turned back to face the mantle as she drew her finger over the picture of the youngest Spencer. "Is that what you're planning to tell Aiden when he questions you about screwing the man who kidnapped him?"

Elizabeth paled and her heart leapt, "I will explain to my son what he needs to know, if he ever has questions. I'll make him understand that medical facts cannot be ignored in face of something like that."

Sam nodded her head tauntingly, " _Medical facts_ \- sure - I'm certain that you'll be able to cite _medical facts_ when you explain to your baby that you're sleeping with the man who kidnapped him, tortured several people he knows quite well, including his aunt who was strapped to an active bomb as a game, got off for murdering several others in the name of _Art_ , something you both share such a passion for…because _medical facts_ say he wasn't to blame. You want me to pay for leaving you and Jason and Lucky to grieve and worry and lose your minds when _someone else_ kidnapped Jake, but it's okay that you're fucking the maniac that _actually_ kidnapped _him_ and left you and Lucky and Nicholas that time, to worry and grieve and lose your minds, because of _medical facts_!"

Sam turned to face her again. "I can never be forgiven because my fractured, mental state at the time caused me to make some really bad decisions that led to me not saying anything when **_you_** turned your back on your baby and neglected him being kidnapped. _I_ should be tarred and feathered for sending actors to give you an idea of what kind of life you were getting your children into when you stuck your head in the clouds and ignored the dangers of being **_unprepared_** to handle the life of a mobster, yet every sin that was committed against you by anyone else is worthy of forgiveness and compassion?"

She walked closer to the remorseless nurse, "And what of your sins, _Saint Elizabeth_? Your sins should all be forgiven because everything you ever did, was in the name of love, so how can anybody hold any of it against you, isn't that right? I mean, you slept with your sister's boyfriend and got pregnant by your best friend's husband, but I'm the worst - I slept with the husband of the woman I didn't consider to be my mother then - the woman who had robbed me of the best thing in my life and ignored my pain that she put me in. You cheated on your husband and got pregnant by someone else, snuck around and lied to everyone about it, slept with his brother, conspired to have an innocent woman murdered to keep secret that you were holding Jason prisoner from himself, his son, his mother - his whole family, openly admit you'd do it all again, but you should come out smelling like a rose, because you _loved him for so long_ , right? You _belong together_ so it was okay to make him feel like nobody loved him enough to look for him or miss him, because you were going to treat him _so good_ and wear the last name, ' ** _Doe_** _'_ so proudly that all your lies and treachery wouldn't matter, isn't that right?"

She rose to face Sam hotly. "Why are you dredging up all this? Jason, Monica, everybody's already forgiven me and moved past it - why can't you leave it alone?"

Sam stormed into her face and sneered, " ** _Everybody_** has **_not_** forgiven you honey! You **_deliberately_** hurt my kid and you will pay for all of it!"

Sam noticed the way she had the nerve to look questioning as if to ask, ' _when_ ' and it made Sam flare. "His father ' _died_ ' not knowing about him, could've lost him again to cancer and had no idea, and you let him look at my son for months and treat him like any other little boy belonging to a friend! You did all that after you'd already tried to make me live a life grieving my son, when you knew damn well he didn't die at birth - because you wanted revenge. Bitch, in what universe did you think I'd let you get away with that shit?"

Her panic was mounting, eyes growing wider with mistrust and disbelief. "What are you saying?"

Sam took an angry step towards her, feeling the vein strain against her neck as she fought to stay in control and not go off pounding the woman. "I'm saying we've only just begun to dance, Lizzie, so get your big girl panties on because we are far from done!"

"What? B-but you've already gotten your revenge - you had me locked up against my will for weeks! You did something to Franco and now he doesn't even want to see me - what more do you want from me?"

Sam threw her head back and laughed, "You are about to find out. I am done pussyfooting around your feelings and your rights. For years I respected your so called friendship with Jason and left you alone - and you took it as free reign to fuck my life! I showed you respect as the mother of his child, gave you empathy when life smacked you over the head like the rest of us, showed you compassion when you grieved for your child, and in return you spit on me and mine, while you take what you want with no apology."

"Apology? You want me to apologize for loving Jason? I was loving him long before you showed u…"

"Yada, yada, yada - yeah, we've all heard it - ' _you've been friends for years, long before I came to town'_ \- blah, blah, blah! That's all you spew, Lizzie…a bunch of meaningless words that don't mean a damn thing! If you really loved Jason you would've never been able to do the things you've done to him, and a true friend would've _never_ lied to him and robbed him of his choices and his life, for her own selfish desperations. A true friend knows him well enough to know that choosing for him is the worse thing you could've done to him. You throw the words around like weeds but you have **_no_** idea what they mean!"

"You're one to talk, Sam. I remember Jason shutting you out because you made choices for him. You've done the same thing!"

Sam looked at the clueless woman incredulously. She had to be pretending to be this damn dense. "There's a huge difference between me waiting until I had the paternity results before telling my husband that the child we were celebrating as ours could actually be a product of me getting raped on our honeymoon, or delaying for a few hours to tell my husband who'd just woken up from brain surgery with a condition that could **_kill_** him that his friend had died, and you delaying for seven months to tell him that **_he_** hadn't! Don't you dare compare our situations - I was looking out for my husband…you were looking out for Elizabeth!"

The nurse realized that she was shaking, the inner tremor she felt actually working its way to her knees. Moving back to the couch she took a seat and wiped her suddenly sweating palms on her lap. She had Sam Morgan after her, and she knew how angry and mean a vengeful Sam could be. She could have never expected her to go as far as she already had, and now she was saying there'd be more. She had no Jason and now, no Franco either. Oh, God, who was going to help her?

As if by a miracle the sound of her phone beeping distracted Sam long enough for her to read a message and appear to be focused elsewhere. Elizabeth watched curiously as she typed a response and started moving towards the door.

"Send prayers of thanks tonight, Lizzie. Looks like I have to take a little trip, so our next dance has to be put off for a couple days." Sam stopped at the door and looked back to the nurse on the couch, sizing up her pale, clammy complexion as she wallowed in misery. What the hell was I ever jealous of, Sam thought to herself? "End game here is either you go mad, or you go away…either way - you **_will_** leave the place I raise my family with my husband…and I'm not asking!"

Sam stared at the way her nostril flared as she swallowed hard, and she knew that her position was completely understood. "I'll be seeing you really soon! And you might want to call the fire department…to put out the fire I mean."

With that, Sam walked boldly out the door, down the short steps of the porch and sauntered to her SUV, reaching into her pocket as she went.

Elizabeth sniffed the air inside for a second, wrinkling her brow in query. "What fire?" Just then an enormous explosion sounded outside her house, sending a huge fireball up past the glass above the door. Railing to her feet she sprinted to fling the door wide open, smoke and heat smacking her face as it erupted from the heap in her driveway…a heap of fiery metal and cloth and melting glass…a heap that used to be her car.


	6. Part VI

**_GH refuses to give my girl her revenge, and that's a shame because it would be must see TV. Sam's character has been watered down and devalued to prop their boring favorites, but she has a spirit that they cannot break. Since they refuse to give my girl her pound of flesh onscreen, I'll take it for her on paper!_**

 ** _Part VI_**

Nicholas Cassadine moved around the grounds shakily, the cane he was forced to use stuck in his hand as he hobbled to the far side of the gardens. He'd grown tired of being cooped up in the castle, so the gardens had become his new solace. The lush grass and towering hedges provided a calming effect beneath open skies, that he desperately sought to block out the images of armed guards constantly following him.

It had been months since he'd recovered consciousness from a fall off the balcony that should have surely killed him, or at least left him paralyzed, yet not even the bullet that lodged in his chest had been able to rob him of life. Someone was looking out for him, someone upstairs had thought him deserving of favors even after all the evils he'd committed prior to his fall. No doubt his angel, Emily, was a constant guardian by his side.

Thinking of Emily as he often did, he couldn't help but also think of her family. He had wronged them, among others of his own family, in ways that were unforgivable and yet, he knew that his princess Emily would have found a way to forgive him still. He thought of his mother and sister, how even in their disappointment they had forgiven him also, and he knew that faking his death had been a lousy thing to do, he knew it from the start…but it hadn't been about them.

Spencer's livelihood was at stake and he had to do whatever it took to keep his son proud and living in the manner in which a prince had grown accustomed and was entitled to. It was unfortunate that his cousin had to get drawn into it but she should've understood. She'd lived the life of a grifter for years, in the name of taking care of her family…she should be able to understand his need to take care of his own, not hate him the way she'd grown to because of it.

What the prince couldn't understand was why he was being held prisoner in his family home. From the moment he'd opened his eyes he was told of his confinement to the castle. Phones were removed and he was watched twenty-four hours a day, growing increasingly angrier as the days wound on and he was refused access to his son and his family. Once he regained his strength and learnt to walk again he was allowed free roam of the grounds and house, but remained a prisoner still. At whose orders he couldn't fathom - his grandmother was dead, and she was the only one who would keep him confined in such a way. At one point he started to wonder if she was even really dead - maybe it had been a ruse afterall, she'd done it so many times before.

Stopping by the bench, he rested his cane there as he stood and looked out at the water at the end of the gardens, to the wall at the edge and the sea in the background, thinking of home.

"Hello, Prince Dick!" Her familiar voice broke his reverie and gave him hope and fear at the same time. She could help him leave, but after everything he'd done…would she? Turning his head slowly to face her as she came up to stand next to him and look out at the horizon, he folded his arms at his back and watched his hopes die in the strong, haughty lift of her head, then the cold deadliness of her eyes that turned slowly to him.

"Sam."

Sam nodded once then looked back out to sea. "Thinking of faraway lands with companies to steal, relatives to wrong, and husbands to conceal?"

The prince hung his head momentarily, bringing it back up to look again out to the horizon. His cousin didn't believe in wasting time and mincing words, she never had.

"What brings you back to Greece, Sam? I would've thought after your last experience here that you would never want to see this place again?"

Her chuckle was cold. "Why not, Prince? It is afterall, my familial estate and of course, you're here?"

"Why exactly is that, cousin? Why am I being kept prisoner here?"

"Ah, but if it's your home where you have free reign, is it really a prison?" She looked at him briefly before she also looked back out to sea. "Perhaps you're right…if you aren't allowed past the gates and no contact with the outside world, family home or not - you're in prison!"

His head lifted another notch. "My son? How is he?" He tried to keep his voice steady and unemotional to conceal the depth of his longing to see Spencer.

"Very well, from what my mother said. According to what Laura told her, he's thriving in that boarding school he chose to go off to. You'd be proud, if you were still alive."

It wasn't only the throbbing in his leg that made them weak and forced him to take a seat instantly.

Sam sat next to her cousin and looked him over keenly. She had made it crystal clear that he was to be treated well and given the same respect that he was used to as Lord of the Castle. He looked well, his color was back since she last saw him, and he was groomed and looking healthy.

"Is this about Jason again?"

Sam's eyebrows raised as she continued to look at him icily. "Again? You really think you should just get away with that, don't you, _cousin_?"

"For God's sakes, Sam - I did it to help you! You deserve so much more than Jason, and you had it! Of course I wanted to protect that for you!"

"Shut the fuck up, Nicholas! Shut up with the rehearsed bullshit you've been spitting since you got caught! You did it for yourself, you did it for money, and you did if for your whore!" Her voice was trembling with the strain of keeping her emotions intact. Every time she thought of how long he'd watched her interact with her husband, watched her son be around him, and said _nothing_ , she wanted to punch him.

Nicholas knew she wanted to punch him, and a part of him would let her, if only she'd make that suffice so he could leave, if only it would make things better between them again. "You know it deep inside, Sam - Jason never put you and Danny first - he never gave you what you needed, what you deserved. Why must you always defend him so fiercely?"

"I defend him because he would die for me, Nicholas! He would walk through fire for our son, and you don't understand that! You don't understand that you don't get to choose my life for me, and what ever gave you the impression that you did is beyond me!"

"How many times did he hurt you? How many times did he leave you in the dust while he put other people's needs before yours? He left you to go to work the first night you were home, Sam!"

"The size of my husband's heart and the committed way that he shows his love and his friendship are his biggest faults, Nicholas. Putting the needs of people he cares about before his own, are things you would never understand because you are selfish and self indulgent! You use people you're supposed to care about to line your pockets and secure ill-gained wealth, so of course Jason's selfless deeds are a quandary to you! He had my full support and urging to go help his friend that night, and that's something else that you would never understand - supporting someone you love and giving them room to be themselves."

"His kind of help is what I wanted you to get away from finally. He's constantly surrounded by guns and violence - Danny shouldn't have to grow up around that. You and your son should feel safe - and you did, with Jason gone."

"With Jason gone I settled for what happiness I could find without him. I buried him in my heart and put on a new face for my new world where the love of my life didn't exist anymore, and I died a little more each day without him. Guns and violence were a part of my life before I met Jason, and for your information…nobody in this world makes me feel safer - never have and never will. Our son will grow up to know that this world is made up of all kinds of people, that not everybody is a doctor, or a nurse, or tycoon…and that it's okay, because if we were all the same this world would be one very boring and pointless place. His father and I will always protect him, as is our job as his parents…do you get that? **_We_** , are his parents… ** _we_** made him, and **_we_** make decisions for him. You don't have to like our lifestyle, you don't have to condone the way we choose to live, but you sure as hell don't get to dictate it."

"So it's okay for you that Jason won't put you before the mob?"

"My husband is no longer in the mob - a decision that **_he_** made for himself, with me and our children in mind and without you and that bitch making it for him. And you bet your ass that if he didn't choose to leave the mob that I would still stand by him…that's what you do when you love someone, Prince. I've accepted that man since the day I knew him, and that will never change, because my husband is so much more than you give him credit for. Why do you think your pet nurse has always tried to latch herself onto him, even over you?"

"I've never understood your, or her fascination with him. He's a danger junkie and it follows him everywhere. You are not safe around him."

"You didn't seem too concerned with his tumultuous existence around her and her clan…why wasn't he too dangerous to be in the wimpy nurse's life? She is afterall, your very best friend in the world? Why didn't you want to keep them away from him too?"

"He didn't remember anything, he wasn't around danger while he was with her."

"But it follows him…you just said…so how come it was okay for her to be exposed to the danger surrounding him? Not to mention, he could've woken up any day and remembered it all - so what then? What was the grand plan for his life then? With her kids growing more attached and dependent on him, with her nestled deeply in his life and having changed all their names to _Doe_ , you two were willing to gamble that he would look at me and Danny and say, sorry Sam - too late now?"

He knew she had a point. She, above anyone else he knew, was most equipped to handle that life, certainly more so than his dear friend who had always hung her happiness on the enforcer for some unknown, unfathomable reason. He'd just been powerless to give in to what she wanted, especially when it coincided so perfectly with his plans for financial stability. It had all seemed perfectly aligned.

"Truth is, you really didn't concern yourself with her or her children's sacrifices in your little production." Her voice fell to a whisper as she watched him disappointedly. "My son and I were casualties in your game…your only care was that by the time any fallout happened, you would be fully ensconced inside ELQ and my husband would've been unable to uproot you. Everything else was arbitrary and we were expendable, weren't we, Nikkie?"

"What is all this supposed to accomplish, Sam?"

"It's simple, Nicholas…you get to learn appreciation for other people's lives, and their right to choose! You get to see that hurting my family is a dire no-no, even when you yourself, are family!"

Fear, like a cold wet hand, started creeping up his spine. "What does that mean?"

Sam looked him dead in the eye when she hissed through gritted teeth, "It means that you get to walk in the shoes that you put on my husband's feet. It means that just like you knew that he was still alive and you kept it to yourself, so shall I keep your presence here all to myself. It means that just like you kept my husband's son from knowing his father's love for a whole damn year, so will your son believe you dead and gone. Just like you kept Jason from his mother and everyone who loves him, so will your mother and sister and everyone else who loves you, mourn your death and grieve your loss."

Nicholas looked at the searing anger that caused her to tremble as she spat the angry words at him and his heart sunk to the pits of his stomach. She meant to keep him here and away from everyone, indefinitely! "Sam, please - you don't need to do this. You've made your point - what I did was selfish and wrong, I get it now!"

" **Do you, Nicholas? Do you get that you are not God? Do you get that family is worth more than all the money in the world and you can't put a price on sincere, unvarnished love? Do you get that my husband is a person in his own right, with his own feelings and mind…that** ** _I_** **am? That you can't own and use people at will, to suit your fancy and to fulfill a whore's whim? Do you? Do you get that I would run a dagger through your heart right this minute, if you weren't my blood?"**

If he hadn't gotten it before, he sure as hell got it then. He had seen Sam upset and angry before, he'd seen her vengeful and remorseless even, but he had never seen her like this! He didn't doubt for one second that riled up as she was in that instant, that she really could drive a knife through him. The thought scared him so much that he instinctively withdrew further into the bench away from her, his minds eye finally opening to the depth of his betrayal of her.

"So what now, Sam?" he whispered. How long do you plan to keep me here?"

Sam rose from the bench, a mixture of volatile anger and acute distaste of being any longer in his presence propelling her to move away from him. "For as long as I damn well please!"

She took a couple steps away from him then she turned back, taking a deep breath to calm down. "What's your worry, Prince? You faked your death to get away from these very people, remember? I'm just giving your original plan a tiny little tweak. This was it, was it not? Except for the part where you **_framed_** my husband for it and were planning to send for your son, you should be proud - you get to be dead, just like you wanted. Your uncle, Valentin sends his regards - he's happy to take care of your precious money while you're…indisposed."

She stared at him coldly, silently for another minute, before she turned away from his slouched shoulders and dread-filled eyes and sauntered towards the gates, back to her life.

"Enjoy being dead, **_cousin_**!"


	7. Part VII

_This one's a request from Rae - you're absolutely right that Ava and Jordan should be taken to task for Jason's hit and run. I wasn't really watching GH then…when they killed Jason and pushed Sam to that guy, I tuned out and didn't tune back in until the disgusting Lake foolishness was coming to an end, so I might not do the Ava/Jordan recap real justice. I remember trying to watch some clips to get caught up but couldn't stomach a lot of it, so there are definite gaps (GH without JaSam doesn't cut it for me). But what the hell - that's what writing is all about - I would change a lot of it anyway, I'm sure, so here goes…hope you enjoy!_

 _As always, thanks for reading and reviewing everyone!_

 **Part VII**

Sam walked through the penthouse door and Jason breathed a noticeable sigh of relief. She had disappeared for t _wenty-nine hours_ , leaving him a brief voicemail that she needed to dash out of town on family business and would be back as soon as she could. He'd been busy with the kids and didn't get her message till hours after she'd left, then got only voicemail when he tried calling her back. She was just supposed to stop by the nurse's house and come back home, that was the plan when she left him enjoying daddy time with their kids the day before…an out of town detour was not on the agenda, as far as he remembered. She had two more hours before he called in a favor to get Sonny's jet and track her down.

"Dammit, Sam Morgan!" The relief that washed him was intense and overwhelming. He grabbed and crushed her to his broad chest. "I want to strangle you and hug you at the same time!" He pulled her tighter then pushed her to arms length and shook her lightly, frustrated with himself that he was powerless to letting the hug win out. "Are you trying to kill me?"

His reaction was shocking to her - Jason was used to her going off for work, even on overnighters and he had no problem with it, so she wasn't expecting the worry much less the emotional display, from her stoic warrior.

"Why? I left you a message, Jason."

He ran his hand impatiently through his short blond crop, then back across his face as he glared at her.

"Just a brief message, Sam…no indication _where_ you'd gone, with or after whom, and no word since yesterday." He couldn't believe how angry he was at her. She could've ended up in trouble and he wouldn't have known where to find her. What if she'd needed him and he had no clue where she was?

Sam shrugged out of her leather jacket, letting it fall to the couch behind her. She was getting a little frustrated at his unveiled anger. He'd done the same countless of times and she'd understood every single time. He had to work.

"I was on my way back, Jason - I didn't think I needed to check in!"

"Not even on our newborn daughter? It doesn't matter that her mother just left her and went off to God knows where, putting herself in danger with no thought to her kids?"

The words stung like a whip, pushing her to take a step back as she looked into the face of the man she loved.

"That's not fair, Jason! I left our children in the care of their _father_ \- you tell me what better person I could've left them with? I thought about them the whole time I was gone - this was about them, about our family! You are not being fair!"

He knew he'd hurt her the moment the words left his lips but it was too late to take them back. His wife was a wonderful mother and she doted on their children, but she had aged him fifty years in the time she'd been gone, when all his mind could do was picture horrible things happening to her without him there to back her. Olivia had nearly killed her, just recently. He knew all about her independent side, respected and supported it even…but he also knew that trouble and danger had her in their crosshairs and were never far behind. He'd die if anything happened to her. He'd lose his mind if he lost his family, and she was the heart of it!

"Family - that's right - this was _family business_. Funny how neither your mother nor either of our sisters knew anything about it, Sam. Which member of the family exactly, was this all about?"

Sam turned her back to her furious husband and ran her hands through her raven lochs, taking a deep breath before she started to explain, knowing that the answer was only going to anger him more. She understood his anger and even appreciated the concern - she knew him well enough to know that he was lashing out because she'd scared him. The answer would not appease him in the least.

"Nicholas!" It was barely a whisper but she knew he'd heard her. Knew by the silence and stillness that he as seething, but reigning in his anger for her sake. She turned to face the narrowing of his eyes and pursing of his lips as he struggled for control. "He needed to learn the consequences of his actions and I needed to see his face when he did."

"You went to Cassadine Island? By yourself - you returned to that loony bin with evil Cassadines spilling out of tunnels and caves, _alone_ , Sam?"

She stepped closer to him and taking another deep breath she reached both arms out to run them along his, all the way down to the fists that clenched against an outburst.

"I was in no danger, Jason. Helena's dead, Valentin is here, and the skeleton staff on the island was easily bought." When he didn't appear mollified, still flaring at the nostrils, she added the pleading eyes, "It was a quick trip in and out to deliver a message - that's all."

He stepped out of her consoling to shake his head angrily, "No, Sam! You know how badly things can go with those people - this was not okay and I won't pretend like it was. You can't just leave us like that and go do something so dangerous and careless and expect me to be okay with it. I'm not okay with it!"

That sent her backbone up. She really didn't want to keep scores but she was being forced to, and she would not feel guilty about protecting her family."

"Okay, Jason - when you're done being a jackass maybe you'll remember that you don't exactly ask my permission before _you_ run off to endanger your life! It's okay for you to go do Sonny's bidding and almost get roasted in a burning building - it's okay for you to take up post on a live bomb and risk being blown to smithereens, without consulting me, but I do something to benefit our family and it's a problem? Why, Jason - why, because I'm the woman? Because my place is at home making babies and cooking your meals? Is that why, _husband_?"

They had found themselves in a full scale fight and the gloves were coming off.

"Don't do that - don't make me out to be some chauvinistic pig who doesn't respect you, because you know that's not true. I don't care how independent and fearless you are, you are my wife and the mother of my children - I get to worry about you, whether you like it or not. I get to care whether or not you come home!"

"I am those things, Jason - first and foremost I **_am_** those things…but they are not all that I am. I am still me, and when someone threatens our family, tries to take you from us, to leave us without you again - I get to do something about it! And I don't have to ask your permission to do it!"

"You don't need my permission, Sam but as your partner I should get to know about it. I should have a say in what **_we_** do about it."

"You mean let you take over and handle it by yourself because I'm a mother now?"

"What's wrong with that? What's wrong with letting me protect you and our family? That's my job, Sam!"

"It's **_our_** job, Jason - ours!" Throwing her hands up, Sam backed away from him and turned to the stairs. "I need to see my babies." The anger building in her would lead them into an all out brawl if she didn't stop it. He was purposely refusing to understand, purposely picking a fight to engage her, so she would end it before it got out of hand.

Without another word she ran up the stairs and headed first to the nursery, her heart instantly lightening and rejoicing at the sight of her babygirl fast asleep, sucking away at her itsy, bitsy thumb. Leaning over the crib, Sam smoothed her soft hair gently, then kissed her fingers and laid them against her tiny fist. Her princess was so adorable. "I love you, babygirl…sleep tight." She watched for a few more minutes as her tiny chest rose and fell. Tearing herself away, she snuck into Danny's room for a peak.

The sight of her little boy made her chuckle. He'd thrown the covers off and had one Harley pajama clad leg still beneath them with the other on top, his cheek resting in the palm of his hand with elbow pointed away from him. Even in sleep he looked so serious, like his dad. Moving into the room, Sam gently placed the stray leg back beneath the covers and pulled them up to his chest. Brushing the soft golden curls from his handsome little face, she bent down and kissed his forehead lovingly, smiling as his scowl deepened in sleep as if annoyed that his chosen mode of rest was being corrected. "I love you, babyboy," she whispered, "Sweet dreams." She kissed him again then left his room to travel to hers, where she found Jason sitting up in bed waiting for her.

From the look on his face she knew he wanted to pick up where they left off downstairs but she just wasn't in the mood to fight anymore with him. She headed for the shower instead, opting for scalding hot water to soothe her tired bones and aching muscles. Revenge was taxing work, global revenge even more so.

After allowing the powerful jets to beat the tension from her very tense body, Sam exited the steamy glass to find a fluffy white towel held open for her. Pushing the wet hair back on her head, she looked at her husband's apologetic face before she walked into it, turning her back and relaxing into his arms as they engulfed and wrapped her securely to him.

"I'm sorry." His proclamation was soft and remorseful, his voice warming her insides as the deep baritone pulled at her heartstrings. She knew he was worried - truth be told she'd purposely not called because she knew what he would say, and she'd wanted to put the fight off for as long as she could. She never could stand when she was at odds with her heartbeat.

"I know."

He hugged her to him tightly, his muscled arms comforting and strong, reminding her how safe they always made her feel. She needed to make sure he knew that would never change, she'd make sure he knew that she'd always need him.

"Don't ever leave me like that again!" His face burrowed into her neck as his voice trembled with the force of the emotions he was feeling. She was home, she was alright, but she had scared him. That's what he'd meant to convey earlier, but it had all come out wrong.

"I won't…I promise."

Turning her in his arms, Jason tightened them back around her toweled form and lifted her off the ground, locking her lips with his as he ravished her mouth hungrily. Needing to show her how much he loved her and unable to stem the force of those desires, he spirited her to their bed where he worshipped her until she collapsed bonelessly against him.

He felt the tingle to his cheek where she kissed him hours later, and smoothed the hair at his temple lightly. Opening his eyes to the rays of the morning sun, Jason smiled as they rested on her beautiful face, serious in its intensity as she studied him. She had something on her mind, he could tell.

He nestled his head in the pillow as he focused on her, reaching up to brush her cheek. "What's up?"

Sam stared at him a moment before she shrugged resignedly. "Nothing, really."

He knew better. "No…something! Tell me…"

She kept forgetting how well he knew her and all her tells. She sighed a little.

"I know this is kinda out of the blue and we've come such a long way from it, but sometimes I can't help but think about your accident."

She caressed his cheek softly as she pictured the handsome face she'd first met in that fateful interrogation room all those years before, running her finger now along the lines of his jaw as she mulled over the fact that even though he looked different, there were still similarities between that face and the one now beneath her caress. For one, he was still rigidly handsome, with piercing blue eyes and a regal nose.

"The one that gave you a different face," she finished softly.

Running her forefinger across his forehead, she thought how his scowl lines were very much still in place as well. Then moving lower to trace his lips, she marveled how they still weakened her knees and sent her to heaven's gate, like they always did.

"Why?" His question was asked softly, "What do you think about?"

Sam hesitated as she searched for the right words to convey what she meant. She didn't want him to think for a single second that she was in any way disappointed in the man who came home to her, whether he looked like her old Jason or not.

"While you were fighting to come home, I was carrying on a life without you - instead of fighting to bring you backup. You were taken away from us and I allowed myself to be convinced that you were dead, even when my gut was screaming, _no_." She looked down at his broad chest, the memories plaguing her mind and unsettling her spirit as her finger traced pure chisel. "I hate that I didn't come find you when you needed me."

He knew her, knew that once she latched on to something there was no letting it go until it made sense to her.

"Stop it, Sam - you know better than that!" His voice was low and insistent. "You think I don't know how far you would go for me, or how much you love me?"

"Jason, you were so close for so long…so close! And I had no idea! Do you know how crazy that makes me?"

"Yes, I do." He pushed her on her back as he laid out on top of her, a faint smile breaking the corners of his mouth. "You're a control freak - you can't help it."

She slapped his shoulder playfully but she wasn't smiling. "You could've died in that clinic, and then again on that road, and I would never have known. Do you know how terrifying that is to me?"

"So you've really been thinking about this?" He was concerned by what he could hear in her voice. It was weighing on her heart.

She shifted next to him as she gave the pensive answer, "Yes. And before you get mad again, I didn't do anything dangerous…just retraced a few steps from that night, trying to fill in a few blanks, that's all." She was relieved when the newly forming scowl lines relaxed back into place.

"Okay, what did you find?"

"Not much, unfortunately! I remember that I went to Sonny's that night, and we were looking at a picture of you and reminiscing…missing you so much!" Her eyes shone as she placed a palm against her forehead as her voiced dropped low. "I remember having the most overwhelming sense of your presence there with me - I even told Sonny."

She suddenly shivered without warning, prompting Jason to pull her into his arms and hold her close.

"That's because I was right there, baby. For a few glorious moments the only thing that separated us that night was Sonny's door, but then they found me before I could get to you, and I had to go with them when they told me you were under surveillance. I couldn't take the chance when I knew they'd hurt you."

Succumbing to the sudden, mitigating urge to taste her, he kissed her lips passionately as memories of that night flooded his mind. He'd been so close to her, so close to having her in his arms, so close to feeling his heart beat again.

Her sweet kisses soon drowned out the pain of remembering, taking him to that place where only she did - until he had to come up for air. Resting his forehead to hers, he breathed deeply to stop the unconsciousness threatening his brain.

"I wanted so desperately to get a look at you, to see just a glimpse of your beautiful face, if even for the last time. That was the reason I couldn't let them take me again - I was too close to you, so I bided my time while they jabbered on and on trying to taunt me, waited for the right moment, disarmed and disabled them, then jumped from the car. I'd hurt my leg though, so when I stood up there was this shooting pain, right before I saw headlights bearing down really fast. I tried to jump out of the way but my leg didn't budge, and the next thing I knew, I'd fallen in the middle of the road, right before this crushing pain smashed through my entire body."

Hearing his voice falter at his recollection of that horrible, horrid night, Sam could't fight the tears that filled her eyes as she clung tightly to him and held him to her. She pictured him laying on the cold asphalt, broken and bloodied and in pain, and she wanted to raise Helena from the dead and kill her all over again. She'd administer a thousand painful, indescribable deaths to the wretched, evil bitch if she could!

Jason snuggled his head against her breast as she held him there, the memory fading to the background in face of where he currently was…home - in the arms of the love of his life. He planted a kiss where his head laid before he continued, "I was in and out of consciousness when I got to the hospital, but the next thing I clearly remember is waking up there to bright lights and beeps, no idea who I was."

Sam went on to fill in some gaps for him, telling him what she'd learned about that night.

"Apparently, Jordan Ashford was out driving and her statement to the police was you stood up out of nowhere. She couldn't have avoided hitting you, she had no idea where you'd come from. She called the ambulance and brought you to the hospital."

Jason's mind started racing suddenly. He remembered the moment the headlights bathed him in bright light, his arms instinctively flying to his eyes to shield from the onslaught, and as he dove for cover, he remembered something very telling.

"That's not true." He raised his head from its favorite perch as he searched his memory banks for proof. "I couldn't see the driver clearly, but before I hit the pavement I saw one thing very distinctly."

Sam scooted to a sitting position and rubbed his shoulder reassuringly, "What? What did you see?"

Jason followed her into a similar position next to her, looking down at the covers as he replayed the memory. "The driver had blond hair!" He turned to look at his wife, "I saw a flash of blond, Sam…it wasn't Jordan driving."

"W-hat? Are you sure?"

He shrugged his shoulders lightly, "Well, I suppose she could have been blond back then."

Sam shook her head at him. "No, she wasn't. She's had the same hair color since she came to town." Her voice got excitedly higher, "But you know who **_is_** blond and happened to be very tight with her back then? My dear, Auntie Ava!"

"Okay, wait a minute - why would she lie about hitting someone with a car when she didn't? Why lie for Ava?"

Sam was subconsciously chewing on the nails of her left hand as her brain cells sprung into overdrive. "Not sure, but she wasn't always Commissioner. Back then she was deep undercover and very thick with the Jeromes, Ava especially. Sonny was gunning for Ava - she got pregnant to stop him from killing her."

"So why would Jordan put herself in that position? She could have ended up in jail."

"I don't think so. She knew the law and knew it was on her side, given the circumstances. She must've seen it as her big chance to get in solid with the Jeromes." She slapped the covers angrily, "That bitch used your accident to get them to trust her!"

He saw the angry gleam in her eye and knew a scheme was taking form. "Oh, oh!"

Just then their regular morning alarm sounded in the way of baby Scout's soft cry from the monitor. As Sam got up to get her, she started making mental plans for payback, hoping the PCPD still used the same evidence storage facility.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Why the hell did you want me to meet you here?" Ava Jerome approached the police commissioner at the designated section of the deserted road on the outskirts of town, a place she'd learned to avoid with great deliberation. Leaving her car to walk towards the unmarked police vehicle, she waved her hand to encompass the vast loneliness surrounding them.

Commissioner Jordan Ashford exited her car and came to a stop near the blonde cobra, laying her hand at the hip and returning the scowl directed her way. "Me? You're the one who thought it would be a great idea to revisit buried demons. What is it you want?"

"What are you talking about - you sent me a message to meet you here!" Ava couldn't stand the woman and really didn't appreciate wasting time that she could be spending tracking down the rare antiquity she was on the hot trail of.

Lifting her chin suspiciously, Jordan studied the blond, trying to gauge whether or not she was lying. "I never sent you a message…I got _your_ text, which is why I'm here."

They were each eyeing the other with distrust, growing curious as to the nature of the circumstances that would warrant them being lured to that particular spot.

Ava started backing up, "I'm not staying here - no way am I waiting around to see whatever the hell this is!"

Just then an SUV came around the bend, pulling up behind Ava's car, the headlights bathing both women in a crystal clear halogen blue that caught them both staring towards the newcomers.

"Oh, _Auntie_ \- you weren't leaving already, were you?"

"Sam! Jason - what are you doing here?"

Jordan wasn't amused. "You lured us here?" She glared at Jason, "What is this?"

He answered her coldly, "This is you getting knocked off your high moral perch! This is you explaining to me, why I shouldn't turn you in for filing a false police report and covering up a hit and run!"

His wife was quick to add, "Not to mention calling out your sanctimonious ass, always acting like you're above reproach and above board, accusing my husband of committing every stinking crime in this town because you're too incompetent to solve any of them, or find the real perpetrators like any capable cop would!"

Ava looked at the tiny whipper snapper appreciatively, "Wow, niece - you get right to it, don't you?"

Sam snapped to her, "Shut the hell up, Ava. You almost killed Jason on this very backroad and you kept your lying mouth shut about it! Instead of calling the medics to help him, you called fucking Jordan?"

She rushed towards Ava, but Jason, anticipating the move, given her mood, grabbed her by the waist and held her tight. " ** _He was fighting like hell to get back to us and you almost killed him before he could, you snarly bitch_**!"

Ava was taken a little off guard by her outburst. She had been just as surprised as everyone else when it was revealed that _Jake Doe_ was the feared, and thought dead, Jason Morgan, and truthfully hadn't given the night of the accident any thought since it happened. She was shocked to learn that they knew what really went down!

"Tell me the truth Ava…did you see his face before you hit him? Did you realize that Jason Morgan, the right hand man who would've wiped your organization out of this town before it even set up shop, was standing right where you could mow him down without anyone seeing you? **_Did you run over my husband on purpose, you evil bitch_**?"

Jordan's mind was racing. It couldn't come out now that she had willfully broken the law and protected a criminal element. Of course she had been undercover at the time, and it was expected that there were certain boundaries that had to be pushed to maintain the cover, however, blatantly breaking the law and being directly involved in the cover up of a near fatal run over of a private citizen - she could kiss her career goodbye! The Police Commissioner had to be above reproach, was held to the highest standards of justice.

"Mrs. Morgan, your accusations are unfounded and libelous! I can have you arrested for luring us here under false pretenses - you need to stop this and leave at once!"

Sam flashed Jason's arms from her waist as she confronted the woman. "You can take your threats and kiss my…" she trailed off when Jason dug his fingers in her waist again, but she wasn't done. " ** _You committed a crime, COMMISSIONER…and at my husband's expense_**! You don't deserve to wear that badge, so you can go to hell with flaunting it…you know damn well you couldn't solve a case if the evidence ran up to you and bitch slapped you a few times!"

"Sam, Jason is home and you two are together again so why now? Not that you have proof of anything you're saying. There's no reason for this!"

Sam scoffed loudly, looking to Jason. "No reason, she said!" Turning back to Ava she spat, "Here's a reason! I am sick to death of people in this town treating Jason like _nothing_! Like his life, his needs…don't factor!" She neared on Ava angrily, forcing her to take a step back in surprise as she raised her eyebrows and eyed her niece warily.

"You two stood over his broken, bloodied body, lying there in agony…like he didn't matter…while you hatched your degrading plan." She pointed angrily at the spot near them, the tears filling her eyes without her wanting them, choking her as she sobbed out, " _Right there_ , in need of **_help_**! He could've **_died_** while you were busy covering your worthless, selfish asses!"

Jordan tried again, scrambling for control of the situation. "But he didn't die - he's standing right here safe and sound, and it was because I got him to the hospital in time for them to save his life. This doesn't need to go any further than right here - it was an accident, Sam."

Jason finally spoke up, "It's funny how you think you're still calling the shots."

The coldness in his voice was unsettling. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that power trip you're on - the one that allows you to pin a _faked_ murder on me and refuse to police the evidence right in front of you - is over! It means you'd have to find someone else to hang the town's evils on…if you still had a job. You are biased, blind, and egotistical…and that makes you a _lousy_ Commissioner!"

"Ouch!" Ava couldn't help voicing the burn. "You two don't believe in mincing words, do you?" She went for taunting the couple. "Except, you're still missing this crucial little thing called evidence. You _have_ none!"

Jordan started breathing again. "That's right, you can't prove any of those wild accusations and I suggest you refrain from repeating any of it, or I will be forced to take legal action."

They both smiled slyly at the statement, until they saw the couple look at each other confidently, the private message passing between them sending a cool chill down their respective spines.

Sam kicked a pebble by her booted foot then looked up at Jordan, "Remember how you had a penchant for recording everything…for evidence, I mean?" She savored the instant panic in the woman's eyes and knew exactly when she figured out where the conversation was going. She then turned to a clueless Ava, who had swung her arms open in question.

"See, Auntie Ava, the Commish here was building her case against the underground, so that fateful night when you called all frantic for help, her trusty tape recorder was on her. And guess _where_ that tape ended up?"

Ava started to appreciate the predicament that was building, her anger now turning on her accomplice. "What the hell did you do?"

Jordan hadn't taken her eyes off Sam, astounded by her words. "You are in possession of stolen police records, which is a criminal offense. You either return them at once, or I _will_ press charges."

"Go right ahead," replied Jason. "Give us a reason to leak them everywhere and see if you ever get another job in law enforcement?"

"Not only did you know where to turn up from a cryptic text that only mentioned 't _he_ _accident'_ but you are _both_ on recording, plotting over Jason's crumpled body, caring only about yourselves. Well, good luck explaining your way out of that one, and Ava…you enjoy talking your way out of fleeing the scene of a near fatality, caused by _your_ reckless driving. Then to add insult to injury, you sided with the man you knew had framed my husband for murder, traipsed around Europe with him when all you had to do was make one lousy phonecall to your so called, _family_." Sam sneered at the woman with pure, unadulterated hatred blazing her eyes. "You are all gonna get what's coming to you…my husband and I are **_done_** being everybody's fucking doormats!"

Ava and Jordan watched in shock as the Morgans turned and headed to the SUV, leaving them just as startled and confounded as when they'd first arrived. Jordan knew she might as well head back to the station and start packing up her desk, her career was over before it had even taken root.

"I wonder who we should play it for first?" Sam mocked.

"I don't know, the Mayor doesn't seem too stellar - where's Tiffany when you need a trusty local reporter?"

"Maybe Sonny'd like a listen!"

Ava was rattling her brain for an idea as she watched them get in and drive away. She grabbed her phone to call Scott Baldwin as she hurried to her car. Her lawyer had better find a way around the situation…maybe the statute of limitation had run out, she thought. Maybe the recording was inadmissible, seeing as it was done without her knowledge. No matter what, she was not going back to jail and she was _not_ losing Avery over this…she'd throw Jordan Ashford to the proverbial wolves to get a deal, if it even _hinted_ at her facing any amount of prison time. It was every man for himself - she didn't know any other way. Then on top of everything else she now had to worry about _the_ Jason Morgan coming after her for payback. Shit, shit, shit!

Jason pulled away from the curb and took his wife's hand across the console, giving it an assuring squeeze. "Are you able to let it go now? Let the nightmares die?"

She hadn't told him about the nightmares that kept waking her in a cold sweat some nights, taking her back to the time when she'd been forced to live without him. Several nights it kept her up and sent her pacing downstairs, but she had no idea that he was aware of her troubles.

"I should've known you'd know about those."

"You toss a lot sometimes, mumble about it in your sleep when it's really bad. I was getting ready to suggest you see someone…" He didn't miss her slight scoff. "I know, I know…the irony! I'm serious though, will you let it go now?"

Sam sighed and pushed her head back into the headrest, her face tuned upward to the ceiling. "I don't know, Jason - I keep picturing you out there, hurt and alone…and I had _no_ idea!" She turned her head to stare out at the early evening. "It just doesn't sit well with me, okay?"

"You're not psychic, Sam. You had no way of knowing."

"No, but you and I are connected beyond anything I've ever felt. If I couldn't feel when you needed me so desperately then maybe that connection is not as strong as I thought it was."

The screeching tires startled as he pulled suddenly to the side of the road and threw the SUV into park, turning to face her, one arm thrown around the steering wheel.

"Really, Sam? Look me in the eye and tell me that you don't believe that you and I are connected on another plane…where you can't feel me and I can't feel you!"

When she couldn't answer no, he continued. "I thought so! You and I are completely in sync! You felt me, I know you did - but your heart was at constant war with your head and what you could see right in front of you. Everything that made sense told you I was gone so why wouldn't you believe it? You think I was expecting you to spend your nights trolling lonely, dark backroads combing for me like a crazy person?"

He took her hand in his and pulled at it for her to look into his eyes. "Promise me, right here, right now - this is where it stays! I'm going to start this car, and we're going to leave all the doubts and self recriminations right here on the side of the road, and we're going home to live our lives. I mean it, Sam - promise me right now!"

Sam knew she didn't really believe it. She knew in her soul that they _were_ connected beyond anything else, and that if she had listened despite all the outside noise…she would have indeed heard him clearly. If she had continued to believe, she would have found him long before he got to that backroad and underneath that car.

Deciding in that powerful instant to leave the past where it was, she vowed to never again ignore that inner voice that was her conscience, her compass, her strength. She went willingly into her soulmate's arms and clung to him as securely as he did to her, knowing she would always listen - from that day on - she would always, always follow her instinct.

 ** _A/N: Don't even ask me where the fight at the beginning came from - I have no idea! I started typing and that's what came out LOL. But these two can never stay mad at each other, so it's all good! This chapter turned into a lengthy one but I hope it was at least a little bit interesting for you (even though Sam didn't blow anything up this time). Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for reading!_**


End file.
